West Coast, Alaska Senators Urge Disaster Aid for Multiple Fisheries
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Susan Chambers - October 31, 2017
In a bipartisan push led by Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., all eight West Coast senators — Merkley, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. — this week called on congressional leaders and the Trump administration to include disaster aid for fisheries in the next 2017 disaster funding package.
As the senators pointed out in letters to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and to congressional appropriations leaders, commercial fishing is a bedrock of the economy in many coastal communities, and leaving recent fisheries disasters unaddressed could have negative ripple effects for years to come.
“While the impacts of an extremely low run in a fishery or a complete fishery closure are harder to visualize t
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